STURGEON SPEARING ACTIVITIES

• Sturgeon Spearing season begins Saturday, Feb. 8, and runs for 16 days or until pre-set harvest caps for Lake Winnebago and Upriver Lakes are reached. Daily schedules are 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. • 25th annual Sturgeon Stampede Winter Kite Boarding Classic will include skating, broom ball, ice bowling, ice sailing and kite boarding. A “Big Air” contests will be held, as well as a bonfire and anniversary fireworks show. • According to DNR Winnebago Sturgeon Biologist Ryan Koenigs, increases in sturgeon population have improved the chances of spearing a “trophy-sized” fish. Seven of the top 10 fish on record were caught between 2010 and 2012. • The record lake sturgeon speared in Wisconsin was 212 pounds and was taken from Lake Winnebago in 2010. • Sturgeon eggs are one source of the delicacy caviar. • In 2012, the Wisconsin DNR tagged a lake sturgeon that was 87.5 inches long and 240 pounds. Estimated to be 125 years old, it was the largest fish tagged in the program’s history. It had already released 30 pounds of eggs. Source: Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and Fond du Lac Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Steve Boettcher

'Frozen Chosen' title screen.

Inside almost every ice shanty on Lake Winnebago live more than 100 years of secrets.

And sturgeon-spearing traditions passed down through the generations are not simply revealed.

Filmmaker Steve Boettcher said he handled with care the spearing rituals of two Fond du Lac area families profiled in his documentary “The Frozen Chosen.”

The five-time Emmy award-winning director’s film will make its world premiere Thursday, Feb. 6, at Thelma Sadoff Center for the Arts in Fond du Lac, 51 Sheboygan St. It follows the men and women of the Muche and Schumacher families as they are lured to Lake Winnebago ice by a monstrous beast, according to a description of the movie on the Fond du Lac Area Convention and Visitors Bureau website (fdl.com/frozen).

The premiere is slated just two days before the annual sturgeon spearing season kicks off Saturday, Feb. 8, on Lake Winnebago and Upriver Lakes.

“My first goal was to find two families,” said Boettcher, who with the aid of the Wisconsin DNR, found families on the east and west shore of Lake Winnebago. “The dynamics of the west shore and east shore are very different. And then getting these families to let you go along with them for a season or two and tell the sport through their eyes... I was glad for these families.”

Browse, share sturgeon season photos

The film features the Muche family of Stockbridge and the Schumachers of Fond du Lac, led by 96-year-old patriarch Al Schumacher.

“He’s been spearing since the beginning of the Great Depression,” Boettcher said, referring to Schumacher. “We go out with Al Schumacher and his family — there are multiple generations of his family on the ice. They invade the ice like the Navy Seals. They go out there like Seal Team Six.”

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Boettcher said Chad, Paul and Stuart Muche are like “MacGyver on ice.”

Caught young

The spirit of ice fishing captured Boettcher at a young age. The Wisconsin native is best know for his work producing and directing PBS’s “Pioneers of Television,” and projects for the History Channel, Discovery Channel, BBC, CBS and NBC.

He said he prides himself on being an advocate for his home state.

“I saw it (sturgeon spearing) as a kid,” said Boettcher, who grew up in Appleton and went on ice fishing excursions with his grandpa Ira Vick of Fond du Lac in the 1960s and ’70s. “It captured me. I thought it was amazing from little on. As a kid there’s something about knowing there’s something under the ice.”

While Boettcher’s work has taken him to Africa and Europe, he said Wisconsin has stories that rival any in the world.

The stories of the Lake Sturgeon rival mythical tales of Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster. Harvesting the real 200-pound beast provides a fish story some may compare to slaying a dragon.

And catching the behemoth fish can’t be learned from a book.

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“Little kids on up learned this from their families,” Boettcher said. “That’s what’s so unique about this sport. It’s something that’s passed down from generation to generation. There’s really no school for this. You can’t go to the driving range. You can’t go to a class. It’s like being a pirate. It’s a heritage thing.

“The quest is just amazing and it’s something that is really unique to our state,” he said.

'Frozen Chosen'

Boettcher said it took two years of filming to produce the “Frozen Chosen.” He said his team was lucky enough to see about a half-dozen sturgeon speared for the film. The crew mounted cameras on spears to get an underwater glimpse of the process.

“The likelihood of seeing a fish is about 10 percent,” Boettcher said. “The percentages drop no matter where you are. It’s a true challenge. There’s a guy who’s sat there for 20 years who hasn’t seen a fish. How do you keep your attention after 20 years?

“One guy said it’s like duck hunting in a chimney,” he said.

Pulling one of the bulky fish through a slush-filled open patch isn’t easy, either. But the moment is unforgettable.

“They are ready for this task and it’s game day and they have their game face on,” Boettcher said of the first day of the sturgeon season. “There’s not a lot of discussion. You are intently waiting and watching.”

When someone throws a spear and wins a battle with one of the bulky fish, it’s time to celebrate, he said.

Fight Club

“It’s like ‘Fight Club,’ pulling a 200 to 300-pound creature out of the lake,” said Boettcher, who says he’s never speared one himself. “We were there at that ‘moment.’

“Some of these guys walk tall when they drive it in to the weighing station. It’s a big accomplishment. It’s a test of your reaction and skill and it’s done in a split second.”

Boettcher traveled with the Fond du Lac County Sheriff’s Office Dive and Rescue team, as well as the Wisconsin DNR during the spring spawning season when they captured and tagged fish.

He said his film emphasizes the cooperation between state agencies and sportsmen in reviving the nearly threatened sturgeon population.

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“It’s really a great story, the DNR and sportsmen working hand-in-hand to bring this fish back from extinction,” said Boettcher, who was assisted by former DNR Lake Sturgeon biologist Ron Bruch. “I think this fish going from extinction at the turn of the century to being a surviving sport is a testimony to our DNR efforts and our sportsmen, too.

“This isn’t championed enough. This is a fascinating gem we have in this state.”

Boettcher said he touched on poaching that decimated the population and the culling of sturgeon for caviar.

But he said while harvesting sturgeon is a serious business, he focused on the passion of the hunters.

“Ultimately, it’s really about the people,” Boettcher said. “The people said this is better than the Super Bowl, my wedding day. This sport is so great, that’s what really wrapped me up in this story. It’s a fabric of the people on the lake. I’m proud of that.”

The film has already been previewed by the Muche and Schumacher families and the DNR. All gave the documentary two thumbs up, but Boettcher said he’s ready in case he upsets someone with a spear.

“The ability to share it at this event (Thursday) is really, really fun,” he said.